Have You Seen the Stars Tonight?

Another piece composed around and inspired by a single Alchemy synth track, Fifth Element (a preset with minor modifications; you can hear it solo for the first 30-odd seconds). This one also has a Swirling Electric Piano, Orchestra Bassoon and Orchestra French Horn (all 3 are GB instruments). I have utilized just about everything I know in arranging and mixing this piece of music. My file number for the project is "0-5modRev7.5Ebm-13.9" which indicates that it was the 5th tune I started in Sept. '13, that the original GB file was modified, then revised at least 12 times (though the last 5 were minor changes ;-), and that I changed the key.

Sometime in the 1970s I came upon a remaindered / discounted cassette tape of Blows Against the Empire by Jefferson Starship. One of the tunes on that concept album is "Have You Seen the Stars Tonight?" which invites the listener to accompany the singer up to A Deck to look at them. The image I got from hearing this -- invitation and music -- resonated in a big way with me: the idea of an observation lounge of some kind on an interstellar passenger liner was, and is, very trippy. This piece of music does exactly the same thing for me: it puts me into some sort of romantic, altered state where, if I close my eyes I can picture the universe floating by outside the window, and the majestic ballet of the spheres. Of course, everyone now has grown up with Star Trek, Star Wars and countless other space operas, but sci-fi with a visual emphasis was not very common in those days.

So, forgive a little personal nostalgia if you will, and the purloining of a title, as you close your eyes, sit back, and enjoy a five minute voyage of homage through the heavens with me.

Solar spots...
The many stars that shimmer in the sky are delicately brought to life by your gentle excursion in sound. This is such a peaceful track, and quite serene. It is one of those compositions that just washes over the listener with quiet and restrained movement. I have one small suggestion: ramp up the environment with a lot more reverb and let all these gentle sounds sing longer than they are here. I'm thinking that's all it would take to transport this soundscape to a world-out-and-beyond experience.
Nice measured concept to this.

Nice stuff
I kind of wondered how you'd get those instruments working together, but you did well there :-)

After reading Pauls comment I had to try some mixing of my own in Audacity, slowing it down some 15 seconds, adding some Matrix reverb cathedral, adding some eq boosting bass and taking off some treble - sanding the "sawteeth" kind of - and getting another rather spacey version, if maybe not quite as sparklie as yours. (Send me a note if you'd like me to mail it to you.)

Spaced out on A deck
It's impressive to me how inspirational Alchemy presets can be and you have certainly taken full advantage of the Alchemy muse to build a totally trippy piece. The orchestral instruments are perfect in the sound design and if you hadn't told me otherwise I would have assumed they were synths too (just with an instrumental sound). You take things nice and slow, just as I would imagine things would unfold for a visitor to the observation deck as they try to take in the entire vista.

I would say you have hit the mark, that the Starship folks would be proud, and that all the revs were fully worth it.

Lovely meditative piece
I've been on an ambient kick lately and this is wonderful eyes-closed music! Love the original album as well - had 1/2 the Grateful dead and Crosby, Nash - really a super group! Going to see the "other half" of Airplane on Dec 3rd (Hot Tuna)! Thanks for this song and reminding me of an album gather dust in my archives :)

mind-cleansing....
I usually listen to MJ music through headphones, partly so as not to distract the wonderful lady in the next room, and partly because I enjoy hearing every nuance of the music. What this often means, however, is that music that has constant heavy panning (like this one), often tends to be uncomfortably disorienting... however, in your hands here, this quickly settled into a soft see-saw motion between my ears, and felt a bit like mental floss, cleaning away the "myriad small creatures, tying us to the ground" (Pink Floyd), and allowing the crispness and wonder of the stars to pour through my eyes and into my soul, as I remember them doing when I was a child. Very nicely done, and a perfectly refreshing aural shower. Thanks!
ttfn,
Drakonis

Richard
I kept looking for footage to go with this. Several documentaries (E.G. Nova) had some star sequences that real went well to this piece. I would encourage you to string some of them together and put your music as the backdrop. It would be just inspiring. This would have made a great entry in the Space Race challenge. Nice job!

Seven Sisters
And if you see 6 with your bare eye, you've got good vision! The photo of the Pleiades along with your music brings forward all of these good memories and experiences associated with 'space' and the vastness, mystery, adventure (late nights, small windows in the attic, tv shows etc.). Thanks for that!

This track has a wonderful unhurried flow. The melody has a timeless feel and anchors the chords. Enjoyed.

What's past is prologue
23 September 2016
Howdy!
After an absence of two years at MacJams I'm back and making some noise.
I haven't been totally absent but my interest in music was practically nada. My wife Anne died last year after a... [see more]

Ambient music is a loosely defined musical genre that incorporates elements of a number of different styles - including jazz, electronic music, new age, rock and roll, modern classical music, reggae, traditional, world and even noise.